Tuscaloosa’s music community has a new addition. The Druid City Chorus (DCC) is a new ensemble put together by The University of Alabama Music School.
The musical organization consists of Tuscaloosa community members as well as faculty/staff and students from UA, Shelton State Community College and Stillman College. The choir is now accepting applications for its inaugural season.
Morgan Luttig is the director of choral activities at UA. She said she brought the idea of a community chorus to the table upon being hired by UA.
“When I was first hired here in 2022, one of the visions that I brought is this idea for a large-scale community chorus here in Tuscaloosa. It is something that existed a few decades ago but has not existed recently, and I think it's something that our community is craving,” she explained. “We are going to do some choral only performances, some choral orchestral collaborations, and a little bit of everything in between.”
Luttig said the ensemble will perform a wide variety of music during the upcoming season.
“It is my philosophy that a variety of music is the way of the future, and it engages our ensemble members as well as our audiences in a much more authentic way, if we can represent the vast variety of styles that exist out there in the world,” she said.
The Druid City Chorus will perform two shows during the inaugural season. The choir’s first performance is scheduled for the end of the year.
“We have a fall concert that's coming up. that's going to happen in December of 2024, where we will kind of explore the wide variety of choral music that exists out there,” Luttig explained. “We'll do everything from kind of modern choral repertoire to spiritual arrangements, to some jazz arrangements, to a little bit of historical rep as well, just to show off the variety of choral sounds that this new ensemble can create.”
The second performance, a collaboration with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, is scheduled for April 2025.
“In the spring, we will do our big choral orchestral ensemble. Collaboration with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and a [Leonard] Bernstein concert,” said Luttig.
The choir is scheduled to have weekly rehearsals at The University of Alabama School of Music to prepare for the performances.
Luttig said DCC is special in that the ensemble consists of people from different areas in Tuscaloosa and come from different walks of life.
“What makes this ensemble so unique, the ability to bring people from all different areas of this of this great city and have them join together in a unified sound. That's just something so spectacular,” she said.
Applicants for the Druid City Chorus do not have to have any prior experience with choral performance. To learn more about the DCC, click here.
